Competing Priorities

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Posted on April 21, 2012

Today I want to address the problem I have with all of the different issues competing for priority. Do you buy locally produced or imported organic? Fairtrade or the cheapest available? What about produce that is cheaper per kilo if it is already bagged in plastic?

Clearly, this the best. Grown without pesticides within 100 metres of my kitchen and no packaging.

Unfortunately, we cannot produce everything ourselves, hence my opening question.

Some bloggers are very clear in their strategy and I admire them for their single-mindedness. However, I do not not want to be quite as fanatical on any one particular issue but rather to approach the things we do buy with a more holistic view.

Here are some that I read:

Zero Waste Home – as the title suggests
My Plastic Free Life – as per the title
Frugal Queen – frugality first

I have tried to minimise the plastics that we use, particularly single-use items, for many years.

This is one of our stainless steel drink bottles. I am not saying that we always take our own drinks or that I never buy drinks in plastic bottles. However, we have got rid of the 15 or so plastic drink bottles that we had acquired over the years and I studiously avoid collecting any more from corporate events and the like.

These are some glass storage jars in my pantry, albeit with plastic lids. They are old coffee jars which came from my mother. I do use plastic screw top containers as well in my pantry. While it would be nice to have everything stored in glass, I would prefer to re-use something I already have than go out and buy more things. I do not see a significant health risk in storing dry goods in plastic food-grade containers.

I do try to use glass containers rather than plastic for heating and cooking in the microwave.

Despite my best efforts not to acquire any plastic bags over the past 10 years we still have some. They are used for various purposes, washed and re-used over and over again. Here are some hanging out to dry.

I buy a lot of our dry goods from bulk bins and store some of them in large plastic buckets. Here is my new storage cupboard showing the buckets as well as the boxes of plastic bottles that The Duke uses when bottling his home-brew. There will be doors on the cupboard once they are finished being painted.

First and foremost my strategy is to buy only what we really need. If you remove excess consumption from your lifestyle then you eliminate a lot of waste immediately.

I buy as much as possible from bulk bins and am constantly looking to source less wasteful options for everything I purchase. However, I know that quite a lot of this is imported. The upside is that dried beans for example, weigh less than the equivalent in canned beans, therefore the transport costs (petroleum products) are reduced.

I source meat and fresh produce as locally as possible to reduce ‘food miles’ but do not set arbitrary limits, such as the 100 Mile Diet. This concept began as a blog in 2005 by 2 Canadians. I cannot find the original blog but this link explains it. The idea is excellent and it reminds as all to consider the source of our food.

I take my own containers to the butcher to eliminate plastic bags from that source.

I have reusable mesh bags for buying fruit and vegetables and pay mostly pay the extra for loose produce.

Why organic? Read here to see which fresh foods are likely to retain the most pesticides. Consider growing your own if possible or buying organic of at least some of ‘the dirty dozen’. I do not necessarily follow all of my own advice on this one but intend to re-double my efforts.

Fairtrade? Coffee – always. Chocolate – rarely bought so I have not been so diligent.

What about you? Are any or all of these issues important to you? How do you decide what is a priority for you?

Wardrobe Planning

Simply Baking

9 Comments

Posted on March 28, 2012

Decluttering is not just about throwing out the piles of junk gathering dust in the basement. Nor is minimalism about having a sparsely furnished apartment with almost no sign of human habitation. They are words which are open to interpretation but the over-arching concept is to simplify our homes and lives so that we can make time and space for living.

It is important to keep baking and cooking simple. Creating meals from scratch can easily lead you to acquire all manner of ingredients. All too often these are used once and then end up relegated to the back of the cupboard. I have a well-stocked pantry that has the basic ingredients that I use to create the meals we eat.

I also regularly make substitutions to new recipes so that they fit my ingredients. It is easy to be conned into having many varieties of one ingredient, such as sugar. There is caster, white, soft brown, raw, Demerara and numerous others. I use raw sugar for most general use. I also keep soft brown sugar and caster sugar. If a recipe demands a specialty sugar that I feel cannot be satisfactorily substituted I discard the recipe.

Flour is another example of many options available – white, wholemeal, organic, stoneground, plain, self-raising. I prefer to keep both white and wholemeal. I use white flour for pastry, pasta and making roux for sauces but other than that I tend to use wholemeal or half and half if I want a lighter texture. I only buy plain flour and add baking powder to make self-raising flour as required.

I buy my flour in 5kg bags from Simply Good. I also buy my baking powder in bulk from the same store.

The baking powder is sold from bulk bins so I fill a recycled paper bag with it and then decant into the large glass jar. which is in my stock cupboard. I refill the small container in the pantry as required. Please do not not confuse bicarbonate of soda (bicarb) with baking powder. Baking powder is a combination of bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar.

With basic ingredients to hand it is easy to bake for your family where you know exactly what is in the food. I made these muffins this morning with the last of some bottled cherries I had bought a couple of years ago – not sure why? The recipe was the basic muffin recipe from the book, “Down to Earth” by Rhonda Hetzel. You can find out more on her blog.

I made a zucchini quiche for dinner at the same time. I always try to cook more than one dish when I have the oven turned on so that the power is used efficiently.

Have you tried to simplify the ingredients in your pantry?

Coming Unstuck

4 Comments

Posted on March 24, 2012

This morning we went into town with a list of things to do. It was election day so we had to cast our vote and we were also going to the produce store to get some feed for the chickens and the co-op to buy rice and olive oil.

I was about to get out of the car and the strap on my sandal broke.

These were given to me and whilst they look pretty, they were neither particularly practical or comfortable. In short, I would never have bought them for myself.

So, there we were in town with numerous things to do and no shoes. I did not want to drive 16km round trip to home to collect another pair of shoes. I decided to pop into the local op shops (we have 2 in town ) and see whether there was anything suitable to buy. In the second shop I found these, barely worn, my size and much more suited to my needs than the pair which had broken.

I did not really need another pair of sandals except for my predicament today. However, these are perfect and will get lots of wear in the future. I think I can justify spending $12.95 on these.

Have you bought something when you have been caught short for one reason or another?

Putting It Back

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Posted on March 11, 2012

Today was a fairly rare occurrence as we went shopping. Not grocery shopping but to a couple of large stores. My first goal was to buy some containers/dividers for the bathroom drawers.

We went Howards Storage World and I bought these.

They are acrylic and have small silicone feet on them to stop them sliding in the drawer. This is how they look in the drawer.

I have done the top two drawers like this, the third drawer is empty and the bottom drawer has the hairdryer in it.

Even though I have culled the contents of the bathroom cabinet a couple of times, most recently when I had to take everything out of the room for the renovations, there was still more to do. I carefully evaluated every single item before I put it back into the cabinet. There are still a couple of things that need to be used up and will not be replaced, however, it is almost to the point of having only those things that I actually need or use.

This is the top drawer.

The second drawer.

This is the cupboard. I used to have 2 plastic boxes – one was first aid stuff and the other was extras of medications, sanitiser gel etc so I have now condensed them into one slightly larger box. The bonus is that it is high enough that everything is able to stand up in it.

These are the baskets that I had previously used in the bathroom drawers. They were slightly too big for the space so had got a bit squashed and one was cracked.

The broken one (not shown) went in the bin but I scrubbed the others and have now used them to contain some of the small items in the drawers in my sewing room. They have replaced some cardboard boxes that were a bit the worse for wear after nearly 20 years!

All I have left to do is scrub the 2 plastic boxes from the bathroom cupboard. One, which has an airtight seal will probably go back to being a food storage container. That was its original purpose. The other was previously used for storing toys when Belle and Missy were small so I may offer it to Belle if she needs it for a similar purpose.

Frugal Food

6 Comments

Posted on March 1, 2012

I know that food prices are constantly rising and there is a lot of angst about the price of fruit and vegetables. We recently discovered a fruit barn not too far from us and we are very happy with the prices and quality.

I went and bought some fruit and vegetables this afternoon. Here is what I selected.

1kg carrots
7 nectarines
6 potatoes
5 bananas
1 head of broccoli
1 knob of Australian garlic
6 apples
1 lebanese cucumber

This cost me $11.40. I would like to know if anyone could honestly construe that as expensive.

On the way home I stopped to fill the car with fuel. While I was waiting in the queue to pay I noticed the sign above the ice-cream freezer cabinet. “Magnum Temptation $4.00” My bag of fruit and vegetables was cheaper than 3 of these fancy ice-creams! I know which I would rather have.

How do you manage your food budget?

Fundraising Clutter

14 Comments

Posted on February 29, 2012

I want to preface this post by saying that I have nothing against the concept of fundraising. Many charities receive little or no regular funding so donations are essential for them to be able to carry out the wonderful support and services which they provide. It is also helps to raise awareness of issues such as medical conditions of which many people have limited knowledge.

I am bothered by the amount of stuff generated by fundraising for good causes. The past 25 years has seen exponential growth in this type of fundraising. Almost every week there is some designated ‘day’. We have pink ribbon, white ribbon, blue ribbon, red nose and daffodil days to name but a few.

There are several issues around this whole concept that bother me:

The amount of unnecessary stuff which is generated in the name of merchandising. These include ribbons, lapel pins, pens, medallions, mugs, teddy bears, silicone wristbands, keyrings, bandanas, fake flowers and caps. This is not an exhaustive list but it gives you an idea of the sort of stuff that has become part of the push for the donation dollar.

This stuff is:

Mostly made in overseas sweatshops and imported

Has to be purchased initially by the charity which reduces the money available for use in provision of services and support

Is rarely of any real use to the purchaser

Takes up space, gathers dust and eventually is consigned to landfill

Possibly the earliest proponents of giving away something in exchange for a donation was red poppies on Armistice Day. I believe they used to be handmade using red crepe paper but then progressed to mass produced. Now there is a choice of poppy themed merchandise.

The next forays into a designated ‘day’ that I am aware of were ‘Daffodil Day’ (Cancer Fund) and ‘Red Nose Day’ (SIDS and Kids)which began in 1986 and 1988 respectively. They both began with a single product and quickly expanded into a range of merchandise.

Since when did the need to buy stuff rather than simply make a donation become the accepted norm? Do people feel that they need to ‘advertise’ their support? Or is it simply designed to raise awareness rather than funds? Whatever the reason I disagree with the waste that is generated by the selling of merchandise on these special ‘days’.

My strategy to avoid the stuff is simply to select those charities that I wish to support and make a regular donation directly from my pay or at at time of my choosing. On the rare occasions that I make a donation on a specific ‘day’ I give money with the express wish that I do not want any merchandise. This is usually met with a strange look or comment but I simply say, “No thanks” and leave.

How do you feel about this issue?

Remember, this is not against individual organisations but rather the mass marketing of ‘stuff’ in the name of fundraising.

Book Review – Down to Earth

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Posted on February 27, 2012

Since I have begun to look seriously at the stuff we own I consider every purchase we make carefully. Books are no exception and this has been particularly so since I bought my Kindle about a year ago.

However, last week I bought a new book. It is ‘Down to Earth’ by Rhonda Hetzel. Rhonda writes the blog of the same name and you can check it out here. When I first started reading Rhonda’s blog about a year ago, she made reference to the book she was writing and I dismissed any thoughts of buying it as the blog had heaps of information. How could there be anything new? Besides, I really didn’t not want another book to take up space in my house.

After seeing a copy of the book, I was convinced it was worthwhile and would make an excellent reference book. This was not a knee-jerk reaction and after due consideration I purchased it at Rosetta Books in Maleny. This is our local bookshop and it is where Rhonda will be a guest for the Queensland book launch on Wednesday 14th March.

The book is 325 pages of wisdom bound into a linen-look, hardcover volume measuring 18.5cm x 23.5cm. It is an easy-to-handle size resource which I will use frequently. The information is presented in a logical format with a comprehensive table of contents.

Rhonda has written a well-rounded guide to simple living suitable for all ages and stages. The title of one section is ‘Ages and Stages’ which explains, with outstanding clarity, the relevance of simple living during various decades of our adult life.

This is not a glossy coffee table book, it is a gentle, honest guide to the benefits and value of simple living through one woman’s eyes.

I would commend this book to anyone who is interested in simplifying their life. Whether you are well along the way or merely contemplating embarking on the journey, there is value in this book. As Rhonda says on the first page,

“I was pulled into simple living before I knew what it was. It crept up on me using the smallest of steps and didn’t reveal its true beauty and real power until I was totally hooked. I was searching for a way to live well while spending very little money. What I found was a way of life that also gave me independence, opportunity and freedom.”

Come and be hooked, too.

Ticks All The Boxes

3 Comments

Posted on February 18, 2012

Missy stayed with us last night and this morning we took her to Noosaville to meet up with some friends who are a hiring a boat for the day on the river.

We debated which way to come home and decided to take a drive along the Mary Valley from Eumundi, through Kenilworth and Conondale and back to Maleny.

Kenilworth is the home of a cheese factory which has excellent products. We called in and sampled some of the specialty cheeses. These are lovely for a particular occasion but we really did not need any at the moment.

However, I did buy a 2.5kg block of matured cheddar cheese. We got a discount (not sure why) and it worked out an $10/kg. That is about the same price as I usually pay at Aldi and considerably cheaper than standard cheese in the supermarket. This is a rich, full-flavoured cheese made from local milk in an independent factory which is about 30km from our home. Also, by buying a larger quantity there is less packaging than buying 500g blocks.

I used my food processor to grate half of the block and here it is in containers, ready to go in the freezer. I had a little put aside which will be used in the lasagne I am about to make.

The remainder has been cut into blocks, wrapped and frozen. I have kept some cereal bags and use them to separate items when freezing. They can be re-washed and re-used many times. Here is one flattened out and ready to use.

The cheese is wrapped in the cereal bag and sealed in a container to go in the freezer.